Park Hill Nursery

We love to encourage the children to build skills for the future, today we witnessed a fabulous moment where some of our Second Step children worked together to build a path through their garden. We extended their ideas by challenging them to make the path across to the other gate. They had to problem solve as they only had a few bricks so they needed to keep moving the bricks at the back to the front as their peers walked along the path. Eventually they reached the gate, whilst of course avoiding the crocodiles! Encouraging the children to develop their teamwork, communication and collaborative skills will help them thrive in the future as they experience many situations where they have to work with us. We like to help the children develop these skills before they get to school.

This week our Second Step children have been developing their fine motor skills and coordination whilst learning how to handle tools safely through tapping nails into pumpkins. They all remembered that they needed to have their safety goggles on before doing the activity. This activity helped them develop their hand strength ready to hold a pencil for writing. A skill that is useful to develop to prepare them for school.

This week we have developed our fine motor skills as we made pumpkin soup, the children learnt how to carefully use the knife to cute the vegetables as we prepared our tea, the children were engaged in the whole process and they loved the process so much that we did this activity twice this week. Allowing children to take part in activities to prepare meals helps them to develop their independence and helps them learn where their food comes from.

Pumpkin Potions was an activity that had high levels of engagement from the children as they experimented with combining food colouring, bubbles, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. They were mesmerised seeing the bubbles pour and fizz out of the pumpkin’s mouth. This helped them to develop their vocabulary, fine motor skills and understanding what happens when materials are combined.

We have been exploring pumpkins this week and today we got creative and used our hands to make pumpkin prints and added stalks and vines using a small paint brush. This enabled the children to develop their focus on a task, develop their hand-eye coordination as well as their fine motor skills to control a small brush. Every child is truly an artist as they watched the initial demonstration and then used this as a starting point to create their own pumpkin patch. 🎨

We offer a range of opportunities for our children to explore during the day, here we have a Tuff Tray of cloud dough which the children experimented with using their hands, spoons and cutters to create flour castles and other shapes. This activity helped the children develop their communication skills as they shared their ideas, their attention to focus on a task, their social skills and interaction with others as they played alongside others engaged in the same activity and their physical skills. So many learning areas covered in one hand-on activity. Play is learning.

Richmond Park is on our doorstep and we love to take the children out to explore nature, this week we explored autumnal changes as we went on an Autumn hunt and discussed the colours of the leaves, found acorns and berries. If you are interested in a nursery with nature and a Royal Park on its doorstep please book a tour with us.

We offer Woodland School activities when we explore Richmond Park which is on our doorstep. The children thrive when they spend time in the outdoor environment and this week they were excited to find lots of fallen leaves from the recent storm. They used these to make Leaf Caterpillars which helped them develop their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination as they carefully thread the leafs onto their pipe cleaner.

Come and see on nursery on 9th October, book a tour slot on the link above. New baby room coming soon.

We hosted our first Stay and Play session of the year, we welcomed our parents in to play and share a story with their children before they went to work. It was lovely to give the parents an opportunity to come and see what their children get up to when they are at nursery. We are looking forward to our next stay and play on the theme of construction on 17th October.